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A-73988

Europe visa - Motive of trip

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Hey guys,

For those of you who have needed to apply for a visa in order to come to Europe for a BASE trip(or anyone who knows anything about this matter), is it a good idea to mention that the motive of the trip is BASE jumping? Wouldn't they reject the visa given the high risk nature of the sport. I'm in the process of applying for a visa and am not sure which way to go. Appreciate any advice.

Cheers

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Its just that first I need to submit the documents and then I have an interview where they may ask me to explain in a bit more detail what the purpose of my visit is. If the story is tourism, then I would need to show accommodations in different parts of the country etc such that it be believable. If I just show lodging at one particular place for 1 month(which is whats gonna happen) its not exactly what a regular tourist would do and it does look suspicious. If on the other hand I just be honest, well then yeah I can just be honest but I wonder if there is a risk the visa gets denied. 

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Are you getting any coaching while you are there?

I've written letters (and done interviews by phone) for students who needed a visa.  They never asked me "how long is this course" so people would come for a 4 day course but have a visa for the following several weeks to stay and jump more.

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you dont have to be open but you do have to be honest.

"attending a coached sports course at such and such a location". 

 if they ask "what sport?", then tell them, it's all above board.

or you could say you'll be staying here for one month - hiking... there will deffo be a lot of that.

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(edited)
15 hours ago, A-73988 said:

Then, they would ask for an invitation letter from said "friends". 

it was a phone call and you don't record your calls.  if you get creative, you can have a facebook message to show them.  that would involve someone else though.  hell, i'll send you an email from whatever country you need it from in whatever language you need.  it may not be a good translation so you'll have to check for yourself.  i can do czech, german, or english, but need to use a translator for anything else.

edit:  although if they check your social media and find this you may get in trouble. 

Edited by sfzombie13

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Separately, I'd recommend paying your coach with something other than cash.  I have (twice) had to do phone interviews with US customs when a student came through with enough cash to pay for both training and equipment (i.e. they were buying a new rig) and the customs people didn't believe them about the reason for bringing cash.  If that's you, definitely try to get an itemized invoice showing the cost of everything you bring cash for.

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8 hours ago, davenuk said:

you dont have to be open but you do have to be honest.

"attending a coached sports course at such and such a location". 

 if they ask "what sport?", then tell them, it's all above board.

or you could say you'll be staying here for one month - hiking... there will deffo be a lot of that.

I don't know if honesty is always the best policy....maybe you were lucky enough to be born in the US or Europe and have never had to apply for a visa , but these processes are very arbitrary and the most common reason for rejection is if they cannot fully establish the motive. If I just say I am going to one particular city in one country in Europe, for 30 days , to just hike? They have rejected visas for less. 

Also something being above board isnt good enough. One of my friends had a visa rejected for just  mentioning family links he had in the US. They ask us to get insured for a reason. If something happens to us, they dont want to have to pay for it. Something like BASE jumping could surely make them think thats its might be better to reject the visa application, especially given most insurances don't cover BASE jumping. 

Sometimes the easiest solution is the right one. Honest or not. Either ways, I've emailed my instructor to ask about the invitation letter. Hopefully I can get something sorted there. 

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8 hours ago, sfzombie13 said:

it was a phone call and you don't record your calls.  if you get creative, you can have a facebook message to show them.  that would involve someone else though.  hell, i'll send you an email from whatever country you need it from in whatever language you need.  it may not be a good translation so you'll have to check for yourself.  i can do czech, german, or english, but need to use a translator for anything else.

edit:  although if they check your social media and find this you may get in trouble. 

Actually they list it in the documentation required. Under motives there are several. There is tourism, business and then visit to friends and family. The number one document they ask for is Invitation letter. If I say that it was a phone call and there is no invitation letter, they will simply say "ok" and reject the visa. The reason will be lack of documentation.

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For the USA, it's generally enough to show  that you are paying a USA business for a service (BASE training).

What country in Europe are you going to?  If you are going to several Schengen area countries it might be worth researching which one is the easiest to get a visa for.   Once you're inside the Schengen area, there is no internal passport control, so you could potentially get a visa for an 'easy' country, fly in there, and then travel to the places you want to visit.

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(edited)

So first off, the first and absolutely best piece of advise with regards to anything related to any embassy ever is to avoid any interaction if at all possible.  Every embassy for every country I have ever dealt with was bad, arbitrary, illogical, self serving, for every country.  A couple of times for a couple of first world countries I was flat out told they don't care what the laws of the country they represent actually are.

If at all possible, find a travel agent that has experience with the embassy and contract the interaction out to them.  Travel agents will know what to put on the forms to not create any suspicion.  The embassy knows who the travel agents are and ask fewer questions.  The travel agents typically know someone in the embassy in case things get dicey in the process (ask me for some horror stories over beer...)

But if you still decide to forge ahead on your own, dealing with visas in my experience less is more. Pretend you are a generic tourist.

Purpose: tourism. Going on a backpacking trip. Going to try to spend as much time with the locals as possible.

Create yourself an itinerary. Hotels can be cancelled for free.

Typically what they'll care about with tourism is that you have an exit ticket booked, a place to stay booked for the first couple of nights, and have enough ties to your current country that you won't want to overstay your visit.

 

Edited by lyosha
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I agree with @lyosha above on all points.  Over the years, I've travelled in over 90 countries.  Do NOT speak to these officials anymore more answering their queries in the barest form (the suggestion to use an agent on your behalf is even better).

Ask yourself, what type of person seeks to have a government job of this nature; you're not exactly dealing with the best society has to offer from either a perspective of intelligence or empathy.

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1 hour ago, lyosha said:

So first off, the first and absolutely best piece of advise with regards to anything related to any embassy ever is to avoid any interaction if at all possible.  Every embassy for every country I have ever dealt with was bad, arbitrary, illogical, self serving, for every country.  A couple of times for a couple of first world countries I was flat out told they don't care what the laws of the country they represent actually are.

If at all possible, find a travel agent that has experience with the embassy and contract the interaction out to them.  Travel agents will know what to put on the forms to not create any suspicion.  The embassy knows who the travel agents are and ask fewer questions.  The travel agents typically know someone in the embassy in case things get dicey in the process (ask me for some horror stories over beer...)

But if you still decide to forge ahead on your own, dealing with visas in my experience less is more. Pretend you are a generic tourist.

Purpose: tourism. Going on a backpacking trip. Going to try to spend as much time with the locals as possible.

Create yourself an itinerary. Hotels can be cancelled for free.

Typically what they'll care about with tourism is that you have an exit ticket booked, a place to stay booked for the first couple of nights, and have enough ties to your current country that you won't want to overstay your visit.

 

Thanks for the advice! In line with a lot of what I have seen in my lifetime. 

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17 hours ago, TomAiello said:

For the USA, it's generally enough to show  that you are paying a USA business for a service (BASE training).

What country in Europe are you going to?  If you are going to several Schengen area countries it might be worth researching which one is the easiest to get a visa for.   Once you're inside the Schengen area, there is no internal passport control, so you could potentially get a visa for an 'easy' country, fly in there, and then travel to the places you want to visit.

Im going to Italy. It has some of the better visa rejection statistics. But what you say makes sense for some countries which have more than a 20% rejection rate. 

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